Thriving through change
Ms. Ghazala Butt – Head of HR at Mentor, Siemens
In responding to the challenges brought forth by COVID-19, organizations and HR Professionals have shown great agility and adaptability. New initiatives, new work standards and innovative processes have been brought to light and these organizations have emerged as “Employee Champions”. One such employee champion is Ms. Ghazala Butt. Having more than 15 years of experience in designing and implementing HR Strategies and Policies, Ms. Ghazala has been transforming organizational cultures, building infrastructures and engaging employees thereby supporting organizations’ missions, business strategies and core values. Ms. Ghazala is serving as the Head of HR at Mentor, Siemens since 2009 and was previously associated with i2c Inc. and Vopium. Owing to the Diversity & Inclusion initiatives she has implemented in her organization, Mentor –Siemens has won three D&I SHRM best practices awards last year. Ms. Ghazala is also leading Pakistan Chapter of WIN@S (Women Impact Network@Siemens). She is a co-founder of WMPK, a support network for the Pakistani working mothers.
How was your organization affected by this Pandemic (Covid-19) and what employee related challenges did you face?
The pandemic has disrupted the traditional way of working and has forced the employees and the organizations to adapt and persevere as they adjust to this whole new way of working methodology. It brings several global and local challenges as well.
Although we had a WFH policy before this but it wasn’t designed to handle a remote working environment for everyone. To add further difficulty, Pakistan has its own unique infrastructure related challenges such as limited internet bandwidth and fluctuation, and power outages etc.
Our biggest challenge initially was to balance and maintain employees’ productivity, and their mental health and well-being as when they are working from home the boundaries between work and personal time get blurred. On top of that people are unaware of the best practices and ways to tackle such challenges.
What measures did your organization take to emerge as “Employee Champion” during this time?
Our priority has always been to protect the health and well-being of our employees, their families and the community in which we live and work as it has a direct impact on our business. Our first step was to create the SOPs to deal with this situation to enable a complete WFH for all the employees. We created a crisis management team to monitor and assist our employees across the company.
We also facilitated our employees by providing all necessary infrastructure including internet devices, office chairs, and personal working space creation within their houses.
To maintain and balance employees’ mental health, we developed new ways to engage our employees in perhaps more meaningful ways. To name a few would be:
Virtual coffee sessions
Happy Hours
Virtual Training Sessions
Trivia Challenges
Scavenger Hunts
Your organization has been acquired by Siemens. What do you think is core to M&A success and what is the role of HR in these volatile situations?
During an acquisition, it is integral to preserve the organization’s core values and establish a healthy and profitable workplace for employees and all stakeholders. HR has to adapt to new culture, situations and synergies because it is a bit difficult to bring people on board during the change process. We look at acquisition from a business perspective but our people, quite rightly, look at it from a human perspective. So, HR should put itself in employees’ shoes, consider what it means to them and deliver the message timely and appropriately for the success of the M&A.
Secondly, a lot of it comes down to being proactive and maintaining open communication channels with its employees so that their concerns or worries are addressed timely.
What is the biggest challenge of IT based organizations?
Employee retention; It is a very competitive market, and top technology experts have tons of opportunities, and almost every company offers equal monetary benefits. That is why it is utmost for an IT organization to provide a working environment that keeps their employees engaged and motivated.
Personally, what do you do to ensure that there is a work life balance?
I believe it’s more about work-life integration as opposed to work-life balance. It gives the flexibility to unite the personal and professional lifeways. I plan my daily activities and put my productivity above hours.
Would you like to share some advice with young HR professionals?
Listen, communicate, and be proactive.